Chapter 23 Rule Breakers
A few days passed, and Halo barely thought of his conversation with Evey at all. After all, he had more than enough to occupy his time. Classes were getting more and more difficult, and he was still struggling with charms. An owl came on Friday morning during breakfast, stopping right in front of him and clicking its beak-thing impatiently as it waited for him to untie the note from its leg. Halo couldn't bring himself to put his hands anywhere near the thing, and after a moment Sam made a disgusted noise and undid the note for him, handing it over with a scornful look.
"Man up, Simba," she said, shaking her head. "There's no reason to be afraid of owls."
"I'm not afraid of them…" Halo tried to say, but no one believed him. Cleo gave him a quick, sympathetic look from the other side of the table before dropping her eyes to stare intently at her oatmeal. Halo scowled and decided to ignore the others and just read the letter, which was from Hermione.
I will be coming by the school this afternoon for our first meeting to check on the progress of your magical abilities. Unfortunately, that means that you will be missing your flying lesson this afternoon. Meet me outside the staff room at 2pm.
Best Wishes, Hermione Weasley
Halo had been waiting for a while for her to come check on his progress, so he wasn't really surprised. The only strange thing was the part about the flying lesson. They didn't have flying lessons.
"Hey, are we starting Flying Class today?" Halo asked, looking up at the others. Stunned silence was the only reply he got. Scorpius nosily read Hermione's letter over his shoulder and immediately sprang to his feet, hurrying over to the staff table to ask Professor Mason that very question. The others watched him go, a little surprised by the excited look in his eye. Scorpius was almost always too scared to be excited about much of anything. He came racing back not a minute later with a big smile on his face, and everyone knew that meant yes. For the rest of the morning, the Slytherin first years talked of little else.
The biggest shock of the day came in Herbology, where they were greeted by the cheerful voice of Headmistress Sprout instead of Professor Longbottom. The students exchanged surprised looks as they came in and sat down, wondering what was going on.
"Professor Longbottom has requested that I take over this class, something I am quite happy to do," Headmistress announced after everyone had arrived. She didn't give a reason, but she looked momentarily over at Halo and Cleo's table, and Halo realized what Professor Longbottom must have written in that letter to Evergreen. He must have recused himself from teaching Cleo's class. Evergreen was the deputy headmaster, so he could certainly make it happen. Halo felt guilty and a little bit sad that it had come to this, but at the same time he couldn't help being a little relieved. If he never saw another flubberworm for the rest of his life, he would be happy.
Herbology was very enjoyable, and pretty soon Halo didn't feel even a little guilty. Even Cleo looked happier than usual, although she obviously didn't say so. She had been quiet since their last Herbology class—more than normal, but she no longer seemed to be mad at him for what he had said to Professor Longbottom. That was a relief, and not only because Halo hated it when people were upset with him, especially his friends. There was also the fact that Cleo seemed to have so many enemies that she could sure use a friend or two.
Nearly everyone else at the school, with the exception of Rose, Albus and Cassy, still treated Cleo as if she were dangerous, muttering as she walked through the halls. Sometimes, someone would even yell at her as she walked by, calling her a monster or freak. Sometimes… sometimes they said worse things, and Halo always wanted to turn around and make whoever said it apologize. First year, seventh year, he didn't care; he wanted to make them pay. But Cleo would always catch his eye and just shake her head, and Halo would force himself to keep walking.
Somehow, Cleo just ignored it all. She always pretended that it didn't affect her, but Halo could tell that it did, and whenever anyone said something terrible to her she would say even less than usual for the rest of the day. Halo hated when she got like that, and it happened far too often.
Halo tried not to feel too disappointed as he waved goodbye to the others and made his way over to the staff room and they headed out to the Quidditch Field. Cleo was the only one who didn't look delighted at the prospect of getting on a broomstick. She had probably never been near one, and did not look like she wanted to start now. Halo tried to give her a reassuring smile, but she didn't look at him. Maybe she was still mad at him after all. Sighing a little, he turned away and went to go find Hermione.
Hermione smiled as she met him in the hallway on the way to the staff room and she ushered him into a nearby empty classroom. She asked him how his classes were going, and was unsurprised to hear that Charms was not going well. She nodded to herself knowingly, which was quite annoying.
"Are you going to tell me why I can't seem to do any of the stupid charms," Halo said moodily, picking at the peeling corner of the wooden desk he was sitting at. He didn't care that he sounded like a spoiled child. His stupid charms problem was frustrating.
"Well, simply put, charms are very complex spells that use a limited amount of energy to accomplish specific tasks," Hermione began, looking delighted to be explaining something to someone. Halo nodded, remembering that from his first DATDA class. "Charms aren't so much about magic power, but rather precise wand movements and proper wording and pronunciation. Therefore, your extra magical ability doesn't give any special advantage over anyone else, except maybe that you can perform high level charms that others couldn't manage at your age."
"So I won't ever be good at charms?" Halo asked, feeling disappointed.
"Not at all, Harry," Hermione said, shaking her head. "All you need to do is apply yourself! With hard work, some extra reading and blah blah blah…"
Halo stopped listening and focused instead on making sure he kept his eyes from rolling. Whatever Hermione might say, the answer sure sounded like a yes to him. Hermione didn't seem to understand that not everyone could just read extra books about… everything. Halo found it hard to believe that Rose was really her daughter, since she was more or less the laziest person he had ever met. Sure, Rose was smart… very smart in fact, but she hated doing extra work. Then again, maybe Rose just took after her Father. Halo wondered if Ron was like that. Probably.
"Why isn't Mrs. Potter here?" Halo asked when Hermione was finished with her lecture on good planning. "I thought she was going to help you monitor my progress."
"She was planning to, but something… came up at the Prophet," Hermione said, her eyes flashing in anger. Halo had never seen her upset like this. It was kind of scary.
"Do you mean the article by the Skeeter woman?" Halo asked quietly.
"So you read it?" Hermione asked, sounding concerned. "What am I saying, this is Hogwarts, of course you read what that cow wrote. H-how is the Lestrange girl holding up?"
"Cleo is fine," Halo said, feeling a little annoyed. Why did everyone always call her the girl or the Lestrange girl? He didn't like it, not one bit, but he didn't want Hermione to know that he was upset, so he quickly asked another question. "But, um, it seems like you don't like Rita Skeeter very much."
"Well, you see the kind of garbage she writes," Hermione said, growling like an angry cat. "When I was at school, she tried to do the same thing to Harry, but I managed to sort her out." She smiled at the memory.
"What did you do?" Halo asked, looking at her in amazement. He had never guessed that Hermione of all people could get so worked up.
"Well, turns out that she was an unregistered animagus, and I managed to catch her. All I had to do was threaten to tell the Ministry if she didn't stop writing those nasty lies."
"She was a what?" Halo asked. He'd never heard of an ani-whatever before.
"An animagus is someone who can transform themselves into an animal. It's very difficult, and so they need to register with the Ministry." Hermione had gone back to full explanation mode. Halo hadn't been this excited since he had seen Harry Potter's invisibility cloak. Imagine being able to turn into a freaking animal! He had other concerns, though, at present.
"Then why can't you stop her now?" Halo demanded. "She's still saying all sorts of bad stuff!"
"I know," Hermione said with a sigh, "but unfortunately she registered herself as an animagus several years ago. There's no way I can prove that she was unregistered for all those years. If I could, believe me I would. Ginny is still furious with me for not getting rid of her while I had the chance."
Halo shook his head, disappointed once again that the bad guys got to just go on being bad guys while people like Cleo who had done nothing wrong were hated instead of them.
Hermione seemed to know what he was thinking, because she smiled at him and put her hand on his shoulder. "I know it just doesn't seem right, but in the real world things just aren't as simple as right and wrong. You've seen that for yourself, haven't you Harry."
Halo didn't know what to say, so he just shook his head to clear it and stared at his feet. He knew she was right, but it didn't make him feel any better. Things weren't supposed to be like this. The world was just so unfair. Why… why didn't anyone make it fair?
"I know what will cheer you up," Hermione said when Halo didn't say anything. He looked up at her, very sceptical indeed that she knew anything of the kind. She handed him a big bar of chocolate from Weasley Wizard Wheezes that was shaped like the cartoon head of Harry Potter. It did, in fact, cheer him up.
They talked about his classes for a while longer, and then Halo walked with Hermione back to Professor Evergreen's office, which was apparently the only fireplace in the whole school that was connected to the Floo Network. Hermione explained in exhaustive detail the various rules and regulations regarding transport in and out of Hogwarts. Halo didn't even try to listen for long, since all he needed to know was said at the very beginning. He was tempted to tell her that saying because he is the deputy headmaster would have been good enough, but he wisely remained silent. Halo, even at his young age, could tell that it was a bad idea to say things like that to Hermione Weasley.
As they neared the office, Halo began to get a strange feeling that something wasn't right. He couldn't tell what it was at first, but after a while he realized that his wand was vibrating faintly in his pocket; all on its own! He was about to tell Hermione about it when they arrived at Professor Evergreen's office, and the words died on his tongue.
The office was a complete mess. Ash was everywhere—in fact it looked as though all the ash that had ever collected at the bottom of that poor fireplace had been blasted onto the walls. In the middle of it all stood two girls, both of whom were so covered with the stuff that Halo couldn't tell who they were. No, wait, he recognized the big, evil smile on the shorter girl. Evey turned to him with a mad twinkle in her eye and said, "Just the person I wanted to see. There you go, Lily, that's the special boy you wanted to find."
The other girl, whose name must be Lily, didn't as much as look at Halo. She was staring at Hermione with a look of terror on her face, as if someone had caught her doing something very, very bad. That was, of course, exactly what had happened.
"Lily Luna Potter," Hermione said in a strained voice that barely worked its way through the shock. "What in Merlin's name are you doing here?"
Lily came forward slowly, approaching her aunt with an appropriately guilty expression on her face. Halo watched her with great interest, knowing that she must be James and Albus's younger sister. What was she doing here? He was confused for a second, but when he looked back and forth between Lily, Evey and the fireplace that seemed to have vomited ash all over the room. Comprehension and horror dawned on him, and Halo clapped his hand over his mouth. Floo powder? She'd snuck someone into the school using Floo powder? But Evey had known that he'd just been joking… hadn't she?
"I'm sorry, Auntie Hermione," Lily said in a small voice, but she looked at Halo the whole time as she said it. She had big brown eyes, not unlike his own. As she looked at him, he felt the wand in his pocket vibrate faster, as it a strange current of magic was running through it. What was going on?
"I'm sorry," repeated Lily, "I didn't mean to cause any trouble. Evey said I could visit her, even though we knew I'm not really supposed to. I didn't know how much Floo powder to use. I think I used too much. I just really wanted to come and see… Hogwarts." She looked at Halo again, and instinctively started biting her nails just like Evey did when she was lying. Halo wondered which one of them had picked the habit up from the other.
"You can't be here," Hermione said, still unable to believe what she was seeing. "You just can't…"
"Hi, I'm Lily," the girl said, using the opportunity to walk up to Halo. She looked at him shyly, as if unsure of what to say next. That was quite different from Evey, who bounded forward to stand beside her ash-covered friend. Evey, it seemed, never did anything shyly.
"Just tell him," Evey said, nudging Lily, "tell Halo what you told me about the fire and stuff. He's the one you're looking for."
Hermione still seemed unsure of what to do, and Lily paused to think for a moment. She had to act now before her Auntie stopped her. She was in big trouble, and she knew it, but at least she could do what she came to do.
"The world is in danger, Hogwarts is in danger," Lily said, speaking quietly so that Hermione couldn't hear. She wouldn't believe her anyways.
Incidentally, neither did Halo. He just stared at this girl that he had never met before and wondered what the heck she was talking about. Albus had never mentioned that his sister was crazy, and Rose hadn't said a word about it either. What was going on?
"No, listen, you have to believe me!" Lily said, sounding very upset. She reached out and grabbed his arm, willing him to understand. As she touched him, his wand spun like a top in his pocket and a jolt like electricity ran up his arm. Strange visions entered his mind. They weren't clear images, but more like sensations or smells. He couldn't really explain it, since he had no idea what was going on, but he felt the heat, and he smelled the burning smell of ash. He somehow knew without a doubt that Lily was telling the truth.
Before Halo could make sense of what it all meant, the worst possible thing happened. Professor Evergreen came back from wherever he had been, and stopped dead as he entered his now unrecognizable office.
The next few minutes were about as unenjoyable as any Halo could remember. Lily and Evey were yelled at nearly to the point of tears, something that made Halo very uncomfortable. Apparently, Hermione was really quite good at yelling when she got warmed up. The worst though, came at the very end, when Evey said, with those big, evil, traitorous eyes of hers, "Well, it was all his idea," pointing her finger right at Halo.
Time seemed to stop, or if it didn't stop it at least slowed way, way down. The two adults rounded on him, looking a bit like angry bulls. Halo tried to protest, but they didn't listen to a word of it. He supposed it was fair, in a twisted sort of way. After all, it had actually been his idea, even though he had never intended this to happen. He resolved that day never to joke with nine-year-olds again. Apparently, they didn't understand it at all.
An angry Professor Evergreen marched Halo straight to the Headmistress's office while Hermione took Lily home, promising that her parents were going to hear about this. Just before the two left to go their separate ways, Halo and Lily exchanged a brief look, and Halo gave her a little nod to make sure she knew that he had understood. Lily wasn't just being crazy, something bad was about to happen. He wanted to ask her more, but there was no way to do that now. Clearly the adults didn't understand, or she would have already told them all about it. Then again, maybe they just didn't believe a little kid like her. As he followed Professor Evergreen through the halls, Halo wondered what he should do. The images that had at first been a jumbled mess were slowly getting clearer, and his wand had stopped vibrating. Someone was going to set the sky on fire. He had to stop it.
They stopped in front of the all-too-familiar gargoyle, and Halo sighed to himself, knowing that he was in a lot of trouble this time. He would have to think about a solution to Lily's vision later. He had visited the Headmistress's office way too much already this first year. It was not a good sign.
Professor Evergreen gestured up the moving staircase, and Halo sighed as he made his way up to the Headmistress's office. He would have to find a way to save the world later… if he even had a later.